"Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban
atheists," said Crichton. "There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state
of grace and unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state
of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a
result of our actions, there's a judgment day coming for us all. We are
all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is
called sustainability."

His words replayed in my mind during the media coverage of
New York's two most famous raptors â€“ the red-tailed hawks Pale Male and Lola, after their unceremonious eviction from a 12th floor perch at 927 Fifth Avenue.

Biologists often lump predatory birds into the category known as
"charismatic macrofauna" -- animal organisms big enough to impress or
awe human observers. In their decade of residence alongside Central
Park, Pale Male, Lola and their offspring have been the inspiration for
a documentary movie, multiple television specials and magazine
articles, not to mention a book, "Red-Tails in Love."

That may explain why the removal of their nest inspired a week’s worth of rallies, with nearly a hundred people gathered across the street chanting “ No nest, no peace.”

"Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets," read one sign.

"Honk-4-Hawks," read another.

"People want to see
the nest brought back," E. J. Adams of the New York City Audubon
Society politely explained to the press.

The co-op board reversed itself; Pale Male and Lola will return â€“ demonstrating the benefits of ...not a religion... but what could be called emotional environmentalism. Before we elevate them to sacred status, however,
it's important to realize that not all species have the benefit of a
Manhattan address, celebrity neighbors, and a noble visage. Many, like
the endangered Torrey's Mountain Mint and the American chestnut tree, do
their living and dying invisibly in overlooked spaces such as Charleston Woods on Staten Island.

Saving Staten Island

The history of Staten Island and the history of Staten Island real
estate development
are often one and the same. Since the days of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Staten
Island economy has been built on one fundamental precept: Inside every
cramped city apartment is a future Staten Island homeowner yearning to
breathe free.

Forty years after the construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge,
however, many local groups are starting to question the wisdom of that
notion. A hot real estate market coupled with a
loophole-riddled building code have led to hasty,
ill-conceived developments on an island already known for its crazy-quilt
approach to neighborhood planning. But resistance has been piecemeal as well: "There's so many things going on on Staten Island that everybody is so
busy taking care of their own little piece of turf," says Dennis
Conwell, a Dongan Hills activist.

Lately, however, island environmental groups have been finding places
to dig in. For the last 12 weeks, Kryscherville, a neighborhood just north of the Outerbridge Crossing, has been the scene of candlelight
vigils as local environmental groups protest the potential construction
of the island's third Home Depot store on 130 acres of city-owned
woodland known as Charleston Woods. Event co-organizer David Burg of
WildMetro says the protest was the only recourse after a
failed legal attempt to block the sale to the Blumenfeld Development
Group, a Syosset-based company that a 1999 New York Public Interest
Research Group report ranked as the top-spending lobbyist in New York City.

Burg admits that turnout for the Sunday vigils has been slight -- most
attract fewer than 12 participants -- and the media coverage negligible.
Still, in giving activists a place to gather and vent their feelings,
the group has managed to turn a local defeat into a victory of sorts.
On November 17, delegates from 15 island groups convened for an island-wide
"summit" on open space issues. Attendees pledged mutual support on
everything from low-level single-lot disputes to large-scale projects
such as the recently proposed Nascar racetrack in the wetlands region
just below the Goethals Bridge. To sum up the "join or die" spirit of
the gathering, delegates ambitiously titled their alliance the Coalition
to Save Staten Island.

"The feeling is that there's just too much for existing groups to take
on individually," Burg says. "It's now or never."

Most official remedies to the threat of overdevelopment involved changing “the width of streets or the number of curbs,” said Shirlee Marraccini, a resident
of Great Kills and president of Turnaround Friends, a non-profit
dedicated to converting abandoned or underutilized properties into
community parkland. Such remedies do little to
prevent the subdivision of existing city-owned or privately-owned lots
currently regarded by most Staten Islanders as open space.

If recent behavior is any indication, island politicians are already
sensing a shift in community sentiment, and responding accordingly; area representatives, for example, oppose development of the Charleston Woods site.

"Before we use the Charleston site for stores, we should put it to
public use," writes Councilmember Andrew Lanza on
Gotham Gazette. "The infrastructure of Staten Island has
lagged behind development. We have overcrowded schools, we do not have
enough parkland, and we do not have a single recreational ballfield on
the South Shore."

For Conwell of Dongan Hills, political support is crucial but not as crucial as a
coalition. Development is a many-headed opponent, he believes; without cross-island coordination, each local victory is outweighed by
multiple losses.

"It's so hard to see information in the city," Conwell said. "Between
tracking the auctions, trying to keep track of what the building is
department doing, what the [Department of Environmental Protection] is
doing, you also have to throw in the dimension of what our friends in
Albany and Washington D.C. are doing. Everybody's got a little slice of
responsibility, which adds to the confusion. Most of the time I've just
seen things by watching the Internet."

Burg says even the limited pressure over the Home Depot development has
scored results. Earlier this month, he says, attorneys from the
Blumenfeld Development Group contacted WildMetro to set up a discussion
on how to mitigate the project's environmental impact. Representatives
from the company did not return calls requesting comment, but the
company has a similar Home Depot/Costco project in East Harlem facing
even more community pressure. The group is also talking with the city
about preserving a 30-acre remainder of the Staten Island site as open woodland space.

While not exactly victories, such talks have done much to slow the
fait accompli nature of local developmental politics. When
coalition members gather in January, Marraccini hopes the group can
come up with a few more places worthy of collective action.

"I sincerely believe that the Kryscher Hill-Charleston Wood project was
the beginning of something," she says. "With all the natural areas
going away, we really need to have one united voice. Hopefully, we will have some impact not just on one project but on all of them." The result won't restore us to Eden, but the members of the coalition hope that Staten Island, at least, will be saved.

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